And suddenly it's June 11th and we are back home. Though Amtrak advertised WiFi onboard, it had stopped working. Alas, no posting. I hope you will enjoy a few pictures from the rest of our trip even though they are late.

We had a sunny, beautiful drive south to Soldatna. The sun glistened off the water in the Cook Inlet.

 

Our day of fishing was spectacular with sunny skies and lake-smooth sea. Maybe you can make out the puff of steam from this volcano in the distance.

 

The silver salmon were not cooperative, but the halibut were. Here we are with our limit of two each. They are filleted, frozen and waiting to be shipped to us tomorrow.

 

The next day, we flew to Seattle to catch the Amtrak Coast Starlight in Seattle. The Seattle railroad station is beautifully restored.

 

 

This picture taken facing the mirror is totally deceptive. Our sleeper was tiny, especially when the beds were made up. Norman had the upper berth.

 

Portland, Oregon had a nice station too, encouraging everyone to "Go by train."

 

 

The Oregon forests are making us think that we might have to explore them more closely in the future.

 

Just before dark, we got a glimpse of Crater Lake in the distance. We didn't include it on our drive through Oregon because the roads were still closed because of lingering snow.

 

The Oakland station is modern but nice.

 

We saw the salt making (or should I say extracting) operation as we headed south near the California coast.

Finally, we were close enough to have lovely views of the Pacific Ocean.

 

We arrived in Los Angeles with about an hour to spare before we boarded the Sunset Limited at 10:00pm for the last leg of our trip back to Houston.

 

The next morning, we made a brief stop in Tucson, Arizona.

 

 

We got to see saguaro cactus.

 

 

And blooming Yucca. Looks like they've had a rainy spring; it's very green.

 

 

The scenery is stunning and beautiful to those of us who love the west.

 

 

We soon realized we were in for some desert rain.

 

 

Here is the El Paso station after the rain.

 

 

We had a restful last night complete with delays on the way to San Antonio. Additional delays in San Antonio made us almost four hours late getting home.

 

 

We had a wonderful trip. We appreciate all of you who followed along with us. We'll give you a holler next time. Until then, happy trails to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back again after too many days! We are back in the US in Alaska so WiFi is much better. It helps to be in Palmer near Anchorage.

We spent a couple of days in Dawson City along the Yukon River.

 

We rode the much smaller ferry across to hike to some wrecks of old paddle wheelers.

We saw some bear prints but no bears (okay by me).

 

We left Dawson City on another rainy day.

 

 

We started our Sunday drive with lots of clouds and a grand view of the mountains ahead (this picture doesn't come close to capturing the beauty).

 

 

The sun came out a little later.

 

And we saw our first grizzly bear beside the road.

 

Monday was another day of off and on rain, but the scenery is still fantastic.

 

We were sitting in the RV in the drizzle when these two ambled through the campground.

 

Today's drive was another spectacular day of scenery. We started out driving through  black spruce forest on either side of the road. Though they can get fairly tall, they are never large trees because they grow on top of the permafrost.

 

 

Beautiful mountains are everywhere.

 

And glaciers too.

 

The sun has been out all day (since about 4:00am to be exact).

I hope you're not tired of the majesty of this stunning place.

We took time out of driving to hike toward Hatcher Pass along a rushing stream.

 

Tomorrow morning, we drive the short distance into Anchorage to turn in our RV home. We've driven almost 6,200 miles since we left Iowa. In case you're interested, our tally of wildlife follows (in no particular order):

 



6 moose

20 or so wild horses

1 family of mountain goats

1 coyote

1 elk

numerous snowshoe hare

7 black bear

1 wolf (after doing a little research, I'm convinced)

2 mountain lions (really!)

2 grizzly bear

 

After leaving the RV in Anchorage tomorrow morning, we drive south a short distance to Soldatna. Thursday we are going fishing for Halibut and King Salmon. I hope they'll be some great fish pictures then.